SdKfz.221 Scout Car
|upkeep = |prereq = None |production_struc = Logistik Kompanie |primary_weapon = MG42 Light Machine Gun |secondary_weapon = |garrison = |health = |armor = Light |speed = 7.5 m/s |produces = |num_abilities = 1 |abilities = Secure Sector * Increases resource production in a friendly sector and prevents the enemy from capturing it. * While active, increases maximum health by 50% and makes the car's weapon incredibly good at suppressing infantry. * Renders the car immobile. * Requires the Logistik Upgrade * Costs nothing * Duration: Permanent until deactivated * Cooldown: 10 after activation, 5 after deactivation |num_upgrades = 1 |upgrades = Logistik Upgrade * Enables the Secure Sector ability. * Costs * Takes 25 seconds to install }} The SdKfz.221 Scout Car, simply called the Scout Car in-game, is a light reconnaissance vehicle fielded by the Panzer Elite in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. One of three Panzer Elite vehicles that can capture Strategic Points, this lightly-armed car can patrol against enemies trying to steal your territory, or invade enemy territory to quickly seize more land. The Scout Car can also secure a sector against enemy capture, increasing resource income as well. Game Info The SdKfz.221 Scout Car is officially called the Leichter Panzerspahwagen SdKfz.221 ("Light Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle Sonderkraftfahrzeug 221"). Installed on the same chassis as an SdKfz 222 Armored Car, it is a light, fast vehicle with 4-Wheel-Drive and 14.5mm armor plating. An MG42 Light Machine Gun is installed on a pintle in the vehicle's open-top turret. The Scout Car is produced by the Logistik Kompanie Base Structure, for the cost of , , making it cheaper than a squad of infantry. No special upgrades are required to produce this vehicle. This vehicle is lightly-armed, with nothing but the MG42 to defend itself - useful only against enemy light infantry. However, it is one of only two vehicles in the game that can capture Strategic Points without requiring any special upgrades. Unlike Panzer Elite Infantry, its Strategic Point capture rate is normal (as opposed to the infantry's 75% slower capture rate). This ability makes the vehicle extremely useful in the early game, to quickly expand the Panzer Elite's territory. Later on, this vehicle can make excursions into enemy territory to seize it. The light armor covering this vehicle, coupled with its good speed, makes it useful for hunting down and destroying infantry units. Though it will take damage from small-arms, it benefits from some damage reduction thanks to the armor, and would take a while to destroy with such weapons. Unfortunately, the armor is not strong enough to protect the vehicle from heavy weaponry (like tank cannons and anti-tank cannons) which can destroy it with only a few shots. When the Scout Car'''s '''Logistik Upgrade is installed, it gains a very important ability: Securing captured territory. To do so, the vehicle entrenches itself in a friendly sector, giving up its mobility. In return, the sector it is in will produce significantly more Munitions or Fuel (as appropriate), and cannot be captured by enemy units at all. Furthermore, the Scout Car gains plenty of extra Maximum Health and a significant increase to the Suppression caused by its MG42 Light Machine Gun. The Scout Car can "release" itself from entrenchment at any time, regaining mobility but losing all the above bonuses. Weapons The Scout Car has only one weapon: a 7.92mm MG42 Light Machine Gun mounted on a pintle in the vehicle's open-top turret. This weapon can kill infantry, and while the vehicle is "set up" in a sector is also reasonably good at delivering Suppression fire. 7.92mm MG42 Light Machine Gun The standard Light Machine Gun for all Axis forces, the MG42 is a belt-fed automatic weapon capable of rapid fire. It is useful for killing enemy infantry, which it does at a surprising speed. The game uses many different "variations" of this weapon for the many infantry units, buildings and vehicles that employ it. The Scout Car's version has a range of 35 meters (sight-range), does 6 damage per bullet, and is a little more accurate between 20 and 35 meters than the infantry-carried MG42. However, it is less accurate against close-range targets. It fires 25-bullet bursts, with a 3-second delay between each burst. This MG42 delivers a very small amount of suppression per bullet. Fortunately, when the Scout Car is "Set up" in friendly territory, it gains a 1400% bonus to suppression, allowing it to reliably pin down infantry units. However it is more likely to kill an infantry unit first, thanks to its rapid damage output. Thanks to being installed in the vehicle's turret, this weapon can engage enemies at any direction. Abilities The Scout Car has only one ability available, which must be unlocked first with the purchase of the Logistik Upgrade '''(at the cost of ). With this ability, the vehicle can entrench itself to secure friendly sectors and increase Resource income. This ability is comparable to the British and American Observation Posts. '''Secure Sector * Requires the Logistik Upgrade * Costs nothing. * Activation: Select Ground (Friendly), Select Direction * Duration: Permanent until deactivated * Cooldown: 10 seconds on activation, 5 seconds on deactivation The ability to secure a sector becomes available once the Logistik Upgrade is installed. When activated, select a group point anywhere within friendly territory, then select a valid direction. The Scout Car will drive to the selected point and begin to entrench itself. The entrenching process takes 10 seconds to complete, though its effects are felt immediately once the process begins. Unfortunately, the direction input is completely ignored - the vehicle will set itself up in whatever direction it had when it arrived at the target point. If you wish the vehicle to present its front armor in a certain direction, put the car slightly behind that spot, then order it to entrench at the desired location. It'll drive forward and entrench itself in the direction it traveled. As soon as the vehicle begins entrenching itself, several things will happen. Firstly and most importantly, the sector will become "Secured", with a kicker message shown floating above the sector point for a few moments. As a result, the sector point will produce significantly more Munitions or Fuel, depending on its type. If it is a Basic Strategic Point, it will only provide . In addition, enemy units are prevented from capturing this sector (they don't get the option to do so). While set-up, the vehicle is completely immobile, aside from its turret which can rotate 360-degrees to engage enemies. However, it automatically receives a 50% bonus to its Maximum Health (normally increasing it to ). Additionally, the MG42 mounted on the turret now delivers 15 times the normal amount of suppression. Unfortunately, the initial suppression values on this gun are remarkably low, so after a 15-fold increase it will deliver roughly three times as much suppression as an infantry-carried MG42 LMG (per bullet), or 1/3 as much as an MG42 Heavy Machine Gun Team. The Scout Car does not need to be set up next to a sector point to win these bonuses. It simply needs to be within the sector's boundaries. This means that you can hide the Scout Car nearer the rear of the sector, or within some enclosure where enemies cannot easily get to it. This gives the vehicle some safety against artillery shelling or fast enemy attacks - presuming the enemy hasn't discovered its location already. You can periodically move the vehicle from spot to spot if you think its position has been discovered. When the vehicle has finished setting itself up, the Secure Sector ability button will change function: clicking the button will release the vehicle from entrenchment, losing all above bonuses but making the vehicle mobile again. This process takes 5 seconds to complete, and the Scout Car cannot move until it is finished. The following table illustrates the resource bonus acquired from setting the Scout Car up in various sector types: Upgrades The Scout Car has only one upgrade available, called the Logistik Upgrade. The only function this serves is to enable the Secure Sector ability. Logistik Upgrade * Costs * Takes 20 seconds to complete This upgrade's only function is to enable the Secure Sector ability. It does not provide any additional bonuses to the Scout Car, and thus serves only to prevent fresh units from securing sectors until a modest investment of Munitions is made. If you're short on Munitions, but own a Munitions point that you can protect, you may wish to spend what little Munitions you have on purchasing this upgrade and setting the vehicle up in that sector. This is a long-term investment that will increase your Munitions supply over time. Veterancy Like all other Panzer Elite units, the Scout Car can attain 3 levels of Veterancy, by accumulating experience points from the killing of enemy units. As it gains levels, its performance will increase proportionally. Accumulation Like all other Panzer Elite units, the Scout Car uses the Panzer Elite Shared Veterancy system to accumulate Veterancy points. In this system, units share experience from their kills with each other, within a certain radius. Each kill the Scout Car makes will grant it 100% of the experience value of the killed unit. In addition, it will pass 50% of that value to any Panzer Elite units within 35 meters of itself. Vicariously, the Scout Car receives 50% of the experience value of kills made by other Panzer Elite units within 35 meters. Bonuses Every time the Scout Car gains a level, you'll be asked to choose which Veterancy Upgrade you wish to apply to it - either a Defensive bonus or an Offensive bonus, but not both. You can choose a different bonus at each Veterancy level, if you want. The bonuses described below are specific to each level. Due to the way they are applied on top of each other, when computed together (see below) they may or may not add up as you may expect. When these bonuses are computed together with each other as well as the unit's basic statistics, the results at each level are as follows: * Click the button at the top-right corner to view the entire table. Tactics The Scout Car is not an impressive attack vehicle, though it can pose a threat to enemy infantry early in the game. Instead, it is used for quickly asserting your dominance over a sizeable portion of the map, and then securing said territory against enemy infiltration. The resource bonus it provides can prove extremely useful for early production and for the use of unit abilities. A Scout Car can be produced very early in the game - even with nothing but your starting resources. While Kettenkrads can provide the same function as far as taking territory early on, they have no offensive capability and cannot easily fend off enemy infantry from retaking their gains. Therefore, deploying a Scout Car as your opening move can grant control over the most lucrative resource points, and then actually hold those points against re-capture. By producing several Scout Car'''s, you can increase resource income significantly, especially if you've managed to take several medium- and high-production sectors. Furthermore, you can secure your entire front lines with them, preventing the enemy from increasing the size of his territory. Later on, the '''Scout Car's speed allows it to perform reconnaissance of enemy positions, or even make incursions into enemy territory to capture points when they are left undefended. However, the car is very vulnerable and can easily be destroyed by the enemy, especially since (unlike the Kettenkrad) it has no means by which to hide itself from enemy eyes. Early Deployment Production of a Panzer Grenadiers squad requires . Those Grenadiers can construct a Logistik Kompanie for and . The Logistik Kompanie can then produce a Scout Car for another . The total, , , is within the Panzer Elite's starting budget. This entire project would take about 105 seconds. By the end of the process, you'll have a lightly-armored unit that can quickly reach the enemy's front lines and begin killing off his early infantry and capture his strategic points. Few players will be able to produce a useful counter to a Scout Car this early. Once produced, the Scout Car should head well forward of your lines, and begin either capturing high-value neutral points, or taking sectors away from the enemy. The car should meet minimal enemy resistance at this stage, and can even attempt to cut off enemy sectors from their supply lines. Very little can stop it from doing so. In the meantime, produce more Panzer Grenadiers or Kettenkrads to connect the captured territory to your supply lines. This should get your resource production rolling relatively early, and at the same time perhaps kill off some enemy infantry, and put a dent in their economy. Note that this is something of a gambit. Producing a car this early may leave you with too few units to defend yourself properly once the enemy recovers from their initial losses - if they can do so at all. However, with this tactic you'll probably have acquired several high-yield sectors, which will boost your initial economy, allowing you to rapidly construct an offensive force to follow-up on your early advantage. Your Scout Cars can continue patrolling your territory to kill enemy infantry or harass enemy sectors, or they can entrench themselves in your highest-income sectors to boost them even further. Remember that once heavier vehicles or anti-tank Weapon Teams begin to appear, it's often wise to withdraw your Scout Cars and have them boost your resource production. Resource Boost When the front lines have stabilized and the enemy begins constructing defenses for their sectors, Scout Cars can no longer serve as effectively at grabbing enemy territory. Instead, they should focus on maximizing resource production in your own sectors. Set them up at the highest-value sectors if possible. Never entrench the Scout Car on top of a resource point. This makes it vulnerable to artillery shellings, since the enemy will often attempt to clear a point by bombarding it before sending in the infantry. Instead, find a quite, out-of-the-way spot within the sector's boundaries, and set up your Scout Car there. It's usually best to put the car near the sector's edge that's closest to your base. You can also place the Scout Car as a sort of Machine Gun emplacement, since its MG42 turret can suppress and destroy enemies rather effectively while in the "Set Up" state. Again, don't expose it to enemy units outright - you want to keep its location secret if at all possible. If the enemy does spot your Scout Car, move it elsewhere. Otherwise, there's a good chance that the enemy may try to bring in heavier vehicles to destroy it, or even use an artillery shelling to try and take it out. You can return the vehicle to its original position later. Finally, the Scout Car can double as a mobile anti-infantry platform, protecting nearby sectors as well as its own. If you spot infantry trying to take out an adjacent sector, pack up the vehicle and move it to intercept. You can't "Secure" a sector while it's being captured, but the MG42 might be able to take out the offending infantry before they manage to take the point away from you. You can then return the Scout Car to its original position to continue resource gathering. Veterancy Choices Due to its relatively poor weaponry, weak armor, and largely-defensive role, it's often considered better to take the Defensive veterancy bonuses for the Scout Car. This increases its survivability considerably, and allows it to capitalize on its speed to defend several sectors and/or escape from enemy assaults. If you want to take the Offensive bonuses, do consider at least grabbing the Level 1 Defensive bonus, since it provides a larger bonus. Then you can pick Offensive Bonuses 2 and 3 at later levels. This may also help ensure that your Scout Car makes it to levels 2 and 3 in the first place, since it's generally a fragile vehicle after all. Weaknesses The Scout Car's 14mm-thick armor is unfortunately not strong enough to block any kind of attacks. Though it is largely (but not fully) resistant to small-arms fire, it will take damage from nearly everything else. A single shot from a high-powered anti-tank cannon can sometimes take out a Scout Car, and both Mines and Artillery shellings are likely to either destroy or cripple the vehicle. Also watch out for infantry anti-tank squads. The Scout Car's MG42 Light Machine Gun is not powerful enough to take them out faster than they can launch a missile or two, and this is usually enough to destroy the car. Of course, the Scout Car's most dangerous enemies are Medium Vehicles. These are both fast enough to chase the car down, and powerful enough to destroy it. If one is encountered (for instance an M3 Halftrack with .50 cal upgrades or an M8 Greyhound), run away as quickly as possible towards any friendly unit that can protect the Scout. Quotes On unit creation : On unit selection : On repetitive unit selection : On unit selection while attacking : On halt order : On attack move order : On Logistics upgrade : On Logistics upgrade complete report : On move order : On move order while under attack : On capture order : On capture report : On attack order : On under attack report : On engine damage : Trivia * The real-world SdKfz 221 was equipped with an MG34 Light Machine Gun, not an MG42 as portrayed in the game. There is no MG34 to be found in Company of Heroes. Gallery Logistic_Car_deployed.jpg|A deployed SdKfz.221 Logistic Car is holding a fuel depot. Unit_Scout_Car.jpg|The Scout Car as it appears without external paint and decals. Category:Vehicles Category:Panzer Elite Units